My peculiar nature: Quick rust bluing--- Back in black! https://mypeculiarnature.blogspot.com/2014/08/quick-rust-bluing-back...

An exploration of, well, whatever I happen to be interested in. Probably more Japanese tools and sharpening
stones than any sane person would want to see. The fools progress?

Wed ne sd ay, Au gu st 27 , 201 4 Recent comments

Quick rust bluing--- Back in black! Blog Archive

2018 (11)
The black finish left by the Birchwood-Casey Super-blue just wasn't doing it for me this day. 2016 (2)
2015 (50)
2014 (71)
December (5)
November (5)
October (4)
September (8)
August (11)
Found!!...... but is it Wrought
iron?
Finding wrought iron "In the
wild"
Quick rust bluing--- Back in
black!
Hammer head..... How I battle
the forces of inerti...
More Japanese tool "dress-
up"....
After quench straightening
The product is just fine, very fast, easy to apply, etc, but the result is not particularly durable. The -and- Connecting the do...
cold bluing process affects just the very surface of the metal and, while great for very minor touch- My favorite YouTube video -or-
up, it is not as well suited to high wear areas like the heads of kanna blades and such. My sen sensei
Ito-ura!..... thread back and
There is a simple process that you can perform, in your kitchen (maybe..... Your call), using the urasuki
ingredients that you already have, that results in a very durable black surface on iron and steel. Rust
First step- "Point of sword"
resistant, too. knife
Forge welding file steel........
Rust bluing. Red iron oxide (Rust, bad!), can be converted into black iron oxide (Magnetite, I and some good che...
believe), which will prevent future formation of the bad red rust. The process is very simple, but, I'm
Charcoal for the forge
warning you now..... It looks scary, and feels oh so wrong!
July (1)
June (4)
May (3)
First the scary part. It is actual rust that gets converted, so the metal needs to be fully covered in
red nastyness. Not big chunky rust, more of a thin film of oxidized metal. Traditional rust bluing is a April (7)
slow process, employing various techniques to rust the surface of the metal. Simple exposure to the March (10)
elements works well, but humidity tents are faster. An old favorite is the manure pile (as my friend
February (10)
Brandon reminds me).... Just stick in the metal (Deep. Keep one hand free, to plug your nose!), and
the next day the steel will be nicely rusted. January (3)

2013 (50)
I don't have any manure handy. Manure works well because the moisture, combined with the heat of
decomposition, speeds the formation of rust. We can do one better, by using a mildly corrosive
solution to speed the process along. I have been using a simple hydrogen peroxide and salt solution. Topical
That I do have.
tool rehab and repair (42)
old tools (35)
Japanese tools (33)

Before I start..... The process IS corrosive to the metal, so prudence dictates that any areas where I sharpening (31)
DON'T want rust (edges) need some protection, a resist. kanna (28)
sharpening stones (26)
Japanese sharpening stone (21)
found sharpening stones (15)
diamond sharpening stones (12)
natural sharpening stones (12)
Geological Specimen Supply (10)

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My peculiar nature: Quick rust bluing--- Back in black! https://mypeculiarnature.blogspot.com/2014/08/quick-rust-bluing-back...

The High Bar

ギター製作家の視点
檜材を製材する
9 hours ago

the Carpentry Way

Dark Chocolate and Sponge Cake
(23)
1 day ago

Pegs and 'Tails

Now You See Me… Now You Don’t
1 week ago

Granite Mountain Woodcraft

A Little timber frame
3 weeks ago

The Twin Maples

Jumped to Wix
8 months ago

⽊⼯家国本貴⽂「素材を⽣かす
物語」札幌の特注家具⼯房
た だ い ま その２、プレ
ゼント企画
11 months ago

Labor Limae
Final de año
1 year ago

The Log of Hagoth

Aloha Hawai'i
1 year ago

Furniture Maker ~ Dennis

Young
Working on a new chair design
In this case, I used clear nail polish from the $store. I have used paint, permanent marker, and 2 years ago

varnish, too. Nothing has worked perfectly, but failure of the resist isn't that big of a deal. I still try,
⼯⼈堂
though. ホームページ開設のお知らせ〜
3 years ago
This is a very simple process, nothing is exact. Most anything will work, so feel free to adjust. I am
鉋
STILL adjusting, and things just get easier. Hot liquids (hydrogen peroxide, in this case) can
accommodate a large amount of solute (salt), so I warm the peroxide using a heat gun. You can use a Des and Mariko King Blog
microwave to heat the peroxide to boiling and make a super-saturated solution, but I find that this
Postcards from the path
works just fine. Maybe 3 tablespoons per 1 cup of peroxide? It's not exact.

Wood Reductionist
The only aspect of this whole process that IS exact, is the need for cleanliness. The parts need to be
clean and oil free. They NEED to rust, and anything that impedes that process will affect the Jason
outcome, leaving things looking blotchy. I typically solvent wash (acetone or lacquer thinner usually), Overly enthusiastic
then use a spray cleaner like 409 or spic-and-span (sp?), then finally, hot soapy water. I have just student of (too)
used the hot, soapy water and it was OK. many disciplines.
This is my focal tool.
Now that the part is clean, it needs to stay that way. I wear rubber gloves to avoid contaminating the View my complete profile
part with my skin oil, but that's the only reason. Nothing here is toxic..... Cool!

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----------------------- Posts
Side note.
Comments
I have noticed that some metals will respond differently to this process, and be quicker to form
oxides. High carbon is fast, while the softer iron is slower. Certain blades are more resistant than
others. A small Japanese hammer head doesn't want to rust at all. I wonder what kind of iron it is.....
Very strange!

Anyways, one way of achieving a more even effect, is to activate the metal surface. A brief soak in
vinegar works well, and is available in the kitchen. Phosphoric acid, muriatic acid, or ferric chloride
might not be (not even in MY kitchen. There are limits!). Brief exposure seems to give the process a
jump-start.

---------------------

Put the peroxide/salt solution into a corrosion resistant container, then submerge the metal parts.
The activity will be immediate, and looks rather alarming. Bubbles will rapidly form on all exposed
metal, instantly oxidizing it, and thereby forming rust. A foamy, rust colored scum will accumulate
within minutes.

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My peculiar nature: Quick rust bluing--- Back in black! https://mypeculiarnature.blogspot.com/2014/08/quick-rust-bluing-back...

Hydrogen peroxide, salt, and heat. The perfect rust promoters!

After 5 minutes or so, I remove the parts.

Yuck.

Dry them with the heat gun. This is scary, because the parts rust, right before your eyes!

Even worse! It looks like your worst nightmare (Yeah, I know..... If my worst nightmare is about rusty
tools, I've got an unhealthy attachment, a phobic disorder, or a very unimaginative mind. Rusty tools
rank pretty far down on my list, all things considered).

I card off lightly, using 0000 steel wool.

Don't remove the rust! Rust is what you want! A thin, even coat of light, surface rust. 5 minutes of
oxidation won't form deep pits, or anything. It looks worse than it is.

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My peculiar nature: Quick rust bluing--- Back in black! https://mypeculiarnature.blogspot.com/2014/08/quick-rust-bluing-back...

Now comes the magical transformation ( *insert "magic" sound*).

I use my magic crock pot (on high heat), but boiling water, in a pot on the stove, works even better.
Heat, applied through a conductive media, in the absence of oxygen, transforms the red iron oxide to
black magnetite. Chemistry, physics and magic belong together, in my mind.

After 20 minutes in the crock pot, most of the red rust has been converted to black oxide.

In this picture, the thinner black is the new black oxide forming on the bare metal. The thicker, dark
black is the original forge blackened surface. Rust bluing forms a thick, durable surface, but requires
multiple cycles to build depth. Good stuff.

The hot water in the crock pot is depleted of oxygen. No oxygen means no rust, so you can leave the
steel in the bath as long as you want, basically. Boiling water is well below the tempering
temperature of any blade, so no worries about soft edges either*. Boiling water will convert the red
oxide in just a few minutes.

*And may actually help to relieve some retained forging stresses. Odate wrote that he was advised to
try putting a difficult, temperamental kanna blade onto a hot tin roof to relax it. This is much the
same thing. More on this later......*

Might as well do them all.

The handle of the chisel is covered by electrical tape, as is the ferrule. The blade will be submerged,
and I don't want any water to touch the wood of the handle. Water could accidentally wick up at the
blade/ferrule joint, causing rust to form inside, under the ferrule. I only want rust were I can see it.

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My peculiar nature: Quick rust bluing--- Back in black! https://mypeculiarnature.blogspot.com/2014/08/quick-rust-bluing-back...

Repeat the process, rust, then boil.

Things are looking REALLY scary after the third rusting!

The solution will be good for two applications, but making new promotes more vigorous rust
formation.

Four cycles is enough for now. Not perfect, but good enough.

The resist has peeled, and the bevels look like hell. They will look better after sharpening.You can
repeat the process until the surface is so thickly developed that it resists new rust formation. This
self limiting aspect is what gives rust bluing such a well deserved reputation. It is durable, very
effective, and achievable using simple means. AND it's a safe process!

When you are satisfied (or bored), give everything a good coat of oil. The rust bluing offers a
measure of protection against future rust formation and has a micro porous nature, perfect for
sucking up, and holding, lots of oil. With a protective oil, it's a VERY good finish.

---------------
Another note....

Got a tool that you want to blacken, but only have 1 hour?

Quicker quick-rust bluing.

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My peculiar nature: Quick rust bluing--- Back in black! https://mypeculiarnature.blogspot.com/2014/08/quick-rust-bluing-back...

Clean/degrease
Heat small amount (1/2 cup) hydrogen peroxide
Add 1-2 tbs salt and stir
Paint the tool with the peroxide solution and let sit for a few minutes. Rinse the brush
before reuse.
Dry using a heat gun
Fully immerse the now rusty tool in boiling water for 3-5 minutes
Repeat till satisfied. You can reuse the original solution if you don't contaminate it.
I don't even bother with full immersion any more. Just brushing the tool is good enough. Less wasted
solution and faster, too. The trick was using the heat gun. It dries the metal quickly, and the retained
heat helps accelerate the rust conversion. I've gotten pretty fast at this. I can have a batch of tools
boiling in the crock pot, while simultaneously rusting a second batch using the solution. By the time
the solution is dry, it will be time to remove the first batch from the boil pot.

I can do about 5 cycles in 40 minutes, then an extra long boil for the last 20 minutes. You can leave
everything submerged overnight, then do one more (boil only) in the morning. The water will look
like black tea, and makes a good iron rich fertilizer for the garden. Nontoxic!

------------------

Cold bluing solutions (Birchwood-Casey, Brownell's etc) sort of dye the metal, affecting just the
surface. Paint forms a film, lying on top of the metal. Rust bluing is similar, but it's not paint, it is the
actual surface of the metal, slightly transformed.

Another beautiful aspect of a rust blue finish is the maintenance. Every metal finish treatment is
subject to wear, and requires periodic renewal. Rust bluing is maintained and renewed every time
that you oil the metal. Over the years, as red rust forms and then gets oiled, it will gradually turn
the black to a rich, dark brown. Birchwood-Casey has a metal treatment that simulates this look too,
called "Plum Brown". OK, but not the real thing.

Cosmetically preferred over paint, effective against rust and durable in use, old fashioned rust bluing
was the gold standard of metal treatments. This is the finish that the frontiers men applied to their
guns, meant for hard use, under extreme conditions. It's also time consuming and laborious finish to
apply (compared to a chemical dip.....) so, like many good things, is pretty much gone.

Who would a' thought? Rust?!

Posted by Jason at 11:44 AM

Labels: eBay tools, Japanese tool repair, Japanese tools, kanna, old tools, tool rehab and repair, Yusui

8 comments:

tsuresuregusa September 1, 2014 at 4:02 PM

This is genius! I was never good on chemestry and always wandered how to make the red rust turn
black. Will try it really soon.

keep the great work

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